Tag Archives: blended learning

“a wide range of digital technologies available to support blended learning in formal and informal learning scenarios [and] the key principles to consider when embedding digital technologies into your practice”

This held particular appeal. With our Learning Zone – the branding of our Moodle virtual learning environment (VLE) – almost constructed and with a range of learning content ready to be unleashed on the Communities First workforce I am at the stage of wanting to push different elements of Moodle to see if they are useful for our content and the learning styles of our potential learners. What impressed me with Moodle during my initial training in its administration and use was the sheer versatility and flexibility of the platform; in fact, there was a danger of being overwhelmed and disorientated by the volume of features.

Nearpod

So what would the likes of Nearpod, Google Classrooms and DREAMS (the examples cited in the accompanying video) do that Moodle doesn’t? I wasn’t alone in querying this either with others posting similar comments in the accompanying forum.

Well I’m not clear they offer anything additional at all, though perhaps they may do some things better. All the case studies featured appear to use these platforms in a traditional FE setting and this is different to my context where workforce support and development is my focus. Thanks to the course I now realise learners from Communities First largely learn in a constructivist manner i.e., by constructing their own knowledge and meaning through experience for instance by engaging in ‘real world’ activities (on the job?) and building on their prior knowledge and experience. I am seldom an instructor but more usually facilitate people’s learning. As an aside, with budgets for workers to attend traditional ‘classroom’ training likely to decrease then this constructivist pedagogy.

Google Classrooms

Both Nearpod and Google Classrooms appear to be helpful in creating a collective identity among a class and have embedded within them the sociability that I increasingly recognise is de rigeur in many blended learning technologies. But Moodle’s group function can do similar. A sports lecturer in one of the case studies mentions that he has embedded Google Classrooms within his VLE and this is interesting. He seems particularly keen on how the classroom can be designed and be “more personal to a tutor which they can control”. Reading between the lines, is this a way of the tutor circumnavigating the restrictions in Moodle that its permissions ethos impose on course creators and teachers?

The convenience of Google Classrooms for those with Google accounts is certainly attractive; but I know people who resent the enveloping effect of Google over their online and social media activities (and with which I have more than a little sympathy). But the reality is that the fewer the (perceived) barriers to a new technology the more likely people are to try it and eventually adopt it and ‘mainstream’ it in their learning.

Nearpod appears to offer a seamlessness between use of Powerpoint for instruction and, for instance, formative assessment in a face-to-face context and is probably the one element that I can see myself adopting.

Lastly, having learned last night that Dropbox acquires ownership of anything you store with it (note to self: read the small print), I’m curious whether the likes of Nearpod and Google Classroom (or the previously-introduced Edmodo and Padlet for that matter) allow a tutor to retain ownership of materials he/she uploads. So far the BLE course hasn’t touched on the ethics of using such resources.

With the likes of Google Classrooms and Nearpod, can a tutor retain ownership of content that he/she uploads? @BLECourse#FLble1

Well, actually less reflections, and more confirmation of some pre-held assumptions.

The video that accompanies unit 1.6 (Digital technology and learners) stresses how technology enhances the flexibility of learning for a learner and cites a learner’s ability to skype his tutor and engage with him via Google Hangouts. He also cites being able to submit assignments via Turnitin, and merely ‘chatting’ with his tutor via Facebook, Edmodo (which I’d not heard of before) or Hangouts.

Professor Laurillard acknowledges the ability of the learner to manage his time with such technologies. But she skirts this in favour of drawing attention to what she calls the “crucial value of the technology” which is that they give him “flexible access for social learning” (emphasis added). Enhancing the sociability of learning is an important – “crucial” even – aspect of blended learning. In the cited instance Prof. Laurillard concludes that the learner “isn’t isolated”.

I touched on this in my first Personal reflections blog and how the Blended Learning Essentials course appeared to place an emphasis on sociability and learner interaction. Clearly, this is designed in, not because it is a nice, fluffy thing to do; rather it is a pedagogic necessity that enhances learners’ achievement.

Considering the Communities First workforce as potential users of our Learning Zone moodle many of our potential learners are remote-working, peripatetic and working directly with clients, many of whom have multiple needs and/or difficult personal circumstances. I had already recognised their need to have flexibility in determining when/where it suits them to learn. But I had previously considered the sociability aspect to their online and blended learning on the Learning Zone has an optional extra.

This particular unit on the course suggests it is more a necessity.

Another interesting element in considering what technologies offer in terms of flexibility is the permission to use particular platforms/websites.

The Communities First workforce is primarily employed by Welsh local authorities whose restrictions are frankly Draconian when it comes to allowing which sites their staff can access outside lunch breaks, if at all. The video cites Google Hangouts, Edmodo and Facebook as examples of platforms which enhance the sociability of learning but I would hazard a guess that none are available to the majority of CF workers at, say, 10.30am on a weekday morning.

To illustrate this point, I have had first-hand experience of this with respect to a pilot podcast that I recorded with members of the CF workforce in May.

I had identified several people with whom to evaluate the recording for content, audio quality, length and ease of listening. The mp3 was too large to email and so I placed it in a Dropbox folder and on Soundcloud for people to access to either listen in situ or download to a device of their own choice. Variously, people could not access one or other site via their work PC; had to do so from their own home PCs, requiring them to share with me their personal emails; or could access the sites but had no media player through which to listen to the mp3.

Flexibility isn’t something that is brought about by the the availability of technologies alone. There are external factors that can greatly, even completely, constrain a learner and educator’s efforts to make learning flexible.

WCVA‘s Learning Zone will be hosting these resources and courses. In readiness for the launch of it and the ongoing development of learning materials I have been undertaking the University of Leeds’ Blended Learning Essentials: Getting Started course on The Open University’s Future Learn online platform.

It requires around four hours of learning a week for four weeks and I can complete it at my own pace and in my own time. It’s flexible as well; so if I do only two hours one week I can make it up the following week.

The course encourages you to reflect on the learning and as someone schooled in community development practice this has come naturally to me as I have started the course; the encouragement is always helpful though!

One thing that struck me immediately was the informality and friendliness of the experience. It was very welcoming with a simple film introducing the institution, the platform, the educators and examples of the forthcoming learning content. I was encouraged to introduce myself via a learners’ forum and, without realising the function existed, attracted a follower within minutes. It has a look, feel and lexicon similar to those of social media platforms. On reflection I suppose this allows for a more sociable aspect to the learning. There’s no common room, refectory or (*hiccup*) student bar to where one can share learning experiences, collaborate or socialise with other learners/students; so the forums allow for more peer-interaction and doesn’t make the blended learning experience as lonely as one might fear it will be.

This is interesting from the point of view of the CF workforce. I am of the opinion that there is insufficient interaction between the CF workforce, certainly beyond county and cluster boundaries; and therefore we don’t learn from each other as much as we might. Our Learning Zone will have a forum capacity and perhaps this is something that could be made more prominent. Again, much like social media platforms with a personal avatar and opportunity to describe oneself, the profile function aids this.

The Blended Learning Essentials introduction was not only welcoming but practically helpful as well. This has also highlighted the importance of practical ‘how to’ guides for people; with our Learning Zone, it is not enough for us to expect to ‘build it and they will come’.

For learners unfamiliar with online learning it is not only the course that needs introducing but the platform itself and environmental considerations. With this in mind the Blended Learning Essentials course features a short video (there are lots of visual resources, which as a visual learner I greatly appreciate) that helps make the “learning experience effective and enjoyable” including advice on how to make your environment conducive to learning; how to take notes; how to listen and reflect, and several other key preparatory aspects to learning.

We must not assume that the CF workforce are learning ready. People may not have undertaken learning (of any nature, not just online) for a while. Neither is the CF workforce a traditional office-based workforce. A large proportion of it works remotely, peripatetically, in community venues without ready access to a PC, or only has hand-held devices available to work on. It is feasible that CF workers will be learning in short sharp bursts and our Learning Zone needs to be responsive to this.

So, so far so good.

I have been made to feel welcomed and valued as a learner. I have already begun to think of some changes to make to our learning Zone and have completed my first blog. Now I just need to catch up as I’ve already fallen behind because work gets in the way!

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independenttropicalwales · Thought and opinion inspired and informed by living and working in community development in Wales / Meddwl a barn ysbrydoledig a hysbysir trwy fyw a gweithio mewn datblygu cymunedol yng Nghymru